UPDATE 2-Schibsted Q3 beats fcast, shares surge

* Cost-cutting plan on track, NOK 1 bln effect in 2009

* Soft sales at the start of Q4

* EBITA 303 mln crowns vs 199 mln year ago, fcast 132 mln

* Shares rise 17 pct, up 330 pct since March-low

(Adds details, comments, share price)

By Aasa Christine Stoltz

OSLO, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Norway's media group Schibsted ASA (SBST.OL) reported a surprise rise in third-quarter core earnings on Friday and said its cost-cutting plan was on track, boosting its shares by as much as 17 percent.

Schibsted said sales were softer going into the fourth quarter and there were still no clear signs of an upswing in the media business, which has been hit hard by falling advertising revenues due to the global economic slowdown.

Shares in Schibsted -- up around 330 percent since a March-low -- rose as much as 17.2 percent in the day, and were up 15.9 percent at 117.2 crowns at 0914 GMT against a 0.4 percent rise in the main index in Oslo .OSEBX.

Earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) rose to 303 million crowns ($54.21 million) in the quarter from 199 million a year ago, beating all forecast in a Reuters poll where most analysts had expected a drop in core earnings. Estimates ranged from 85 to 199 million crowns.

The company said its 1 billion crown cost-cutting programme for 2009 was on track and had a 300 million crown effect in the third quarter compared to the same period last year and 700 crowns accumulated for the year.

It repeated its target of 1.6 billion crowns in savings by the end of 2011. Schibsted has reduced the number of staff by 650 people so far this year.

"All in all, it is a satisfactory result... we have been able to control our costs," Chief Executive Rolv Rystdal told a news conference, but added: "The crisis is not over, and we need to increase our revenues in the longer term."

Revenues in the quarter rose to 3.26 billion crowns from 2.97 billion, beating an average forecast of 3.01 billion.

"A great result. I am especially surprised that revenues held up as well as they did," analyst Henrik Schultz at Argo Securities said.

Q4 SOFT SALES, HIGHER COSTS

Schibsted said sales were lower going into the fourth quarter.

"Seasonally, higher activity levels in Q4 compared to Q3 implies a somewhat higher cost level in the last quarter of the year. The start of Q4 has been somewhat soft in terms of sales," Schibsted said in a statement.

The publisher of best-selling Norwegian tabloid VG and the Oslo paper Aftenposten repeated it would continue to invest in online growth and spend 150 million crowns on organic projects in 2009.

It said it is continuing to make targeted investments in online growth opportunities.

"Schibsted expects reduced newsprint prices in 2010 compared to 2009," the company said. It said online media were expected to continue taking market share.

Schibsted said the market for print classified ads in Scandinavia was expected to "remain relatively weak" but that in some categories -- especially real estate ads -- performance was levelling off compared to 2008.

It said the recruitment advertising market, still negatively affected by weak markets, was expected to remain challenging while online classified ads operations were seen performing better than print publications. ($1=5.589 Norwegian Crowns) (Additional reporting by Joergen Frich; Editing by Mike Nesbit)